Low-cost 3D printing is taking it to the next dimension

Advanced Manufacturing CRC’s Brue Grey with examples of metallic 3D printing that can be used for medical purposes. Photo: Josh Robenstone

Caitlin Fitzsimmons

A man smashes his hip in a horrific car crash and is taken to hospital where his body is scanned. By the time his condition has stabilised, a 3D printer has created a new hip joint precisely customised for him as an individual and ready to implant.

This is not science fiction but technology that is being used right now. In all fields, from healthcare to architecture, food production to clothing manufacturing, 3D printing is further advanced than many realise.

Meanwhile, the cost of 3D printers has plummeted, making the technology within reach for most businesses. There is a huge opportunity right now for entrepreneurs and nimble businesses to innovate with 3D printing and disrupt the status quo.

Home-based innovators

Rapid Concepts owner Trevor Stott, an importer of 3D printers, estimates the installed base in Australia is in the hundreds but he expects that to increase. The machines are rapidly becoming more affordable due to open patents and the manufacturing shifting to China.

“Cost is coming down a hell of a lot,” Stott says. “When we started in the business 12 years ago your basic machine would cost $110,000. That would now be $40,000 or $50,000 for the same sort of machine but there are also now desktop machines for a few thousand dollars for the home market.”

The consumer-level machines have been around for about two years and while they are not quite as accurate as the industrial-grade machines of today, they are on par with the 3D printers of a decade ago at a fraction of the cost.

Stott says that even the $50,000 machines can be used for a home-based business because they are small enough to be wheeled into the house. The smallest ones are about the size of a washing machine.

Australian National University professor in applied mathematics, Tim Senden, says outside of universities, the home-based market is one of the most exciting areas for innovation.

“Once you give home inventors the chance to innovate at home, it’s like we saw with the internet – it’s an explosion of capability that goes exponentially faster than anyone could have anticipated,” Senden says. “People can find little niches and clever little ways of solving problems that just standard industry couldn’t have done alone so having crowd-sourced innovation is a very important part of 3D printing technology.”

Architectural benefits

Stott says one of the biggest areas of growth for his company is the architecture market.

Previously architecture 3D modelling software was not compatible with 3D printing, but this has changed. The other shift that Stott has noticed is a rise in younger architects with influence over the IT purchasing decisions of their firms.

Architecture is a “classic example” of a field that is benefiting from 3D printing, says Senden. “You do most of your modelling on the screen and then you might print the final concept model just to see how it works aesthetically.

“We’re basically three-dimensional beings and when you project something on the screen you’re relying on your perception of 3D but actually touching it, seeing it, standing around it makes a really big difference.”

Similarly in pure research, physical 3D models can make a big difference.

He says medical students often refer to anatomical models created by 3D printing, and palaentologists to replicas of old bones or fossils.

Manufacturing ideas

The biggest shift that is happening with the commercial use of 3D printing is in manufacturing, where it is typically called additive manufacturing.

The research has moved rapidly with the US focusing on polymer or plastic-based printing and Europe on additive manufacturing using metal.

The managing director for the Advanced Manufacturing Cooperative Research Centre based at Swinburne University in Melbourne, Bruce Grey, says the technology is moving from the realm of printing prototypes to being used as an actual production technique.

“It’s starting to be seen in mainstream manufacturing particularly in the northern hemisphere,” Grey says.

His CRC is working with companies such as Micro Turbo, which makes parts for the aerospace industry using 3D printing techniques. In commercial aircraft it is typically non-critical elements like plastic trim, but Grey says some of the military aircraft designers are more adventurous.

ANU’s Senden says bespoke or boutique manufacturing is another area of growth, with companies like I Materialise leading the way. Consumers or home-based industries can upload designs for anything from jewellery to home furnishings and I Materialise will print it out with a choice of materials.

Senden also predicts printing food as a mass-production technique is only a couple of years away. “In the immediate future I think we’ll see printed food. We already have printed chocolate but once textured vegetable protein is available to work with, I think we’ll see production line stuff.”

But the biggest opportunity for manufacturers, Senden says, is the fusion between 3D printing and robotics. Manufacturing clothing usually requires different materials and colours for different parts of the garment and trim. Similarly you would not be likely to print a house in its entirety, but rather to print components into a scaffold or for robots to assemble.

Medicinal purposes

Grey says printing orthopaedic implants such as hip replacements is already happening, while in the longer term it could be possible to print tissue and organs.

“It’s had early take-up in orthopaedic implants mainly because of the advantages it offers in that field,” he says. “One desire with orthopaedic implants is what’s referred to as patient-specific implants so a patient will have a scan and the implant will be made according to that scan, so it’s an exact replica of the bone that’s been replaced.”

Two main materials are used – titanium metal and cobalt chrome – but either way Grey says that using it in powder form as a printing material is just as strong and effective as traditional precision grinding.

The other advantage is that 3D printers can create a scaffold-type structure to reduce weight and researchers are conducting pre-clinical research encouraging bone or tissue growth into the scaffold.

Market growth

Gartner predicts the commercial market for 3D print applications will continue expanding into architectural, engineering, geospatial and medical uses, as well as short-run manufacturing. It says 3D printers are now priced so any size business can invest in them and start experimenting.

Businesses that wait until 2016 will be able to buy an enterprise-class machine for under $2000, but early adopters could experiment with minimal risk and possibly gain an advantage in product design and time to market or simply develop better understanding of the costs and time involved.

Gartner argues they are set to lower the cost of entry into manufacturing in the same way that e-commerce did for the sale of goods and services.

Gartner research director Pete Basiliere says 3D printing is more advanced than people realise.

“From descriptions of exciting current uses in medical, manufacturing and other industries to futuristic ideas – such as using 3D printers on asteroids and the moon to create parts for spacecraft and lunar bases – t
he hype leads many people to think the technology is some years away when it is available now and is affordable to most enterprises,” he says.

BRW

BY Caitlin Fitzsimmons

Caitlin covers social media, marketing and technology and is BRW's social media editor.